Rachel's Vineyard Ministries is a resource for clinical
training, education and healing models. Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreats for
emotional and spiritual healing after abortion are held in over 153 locations
throughout the world. Rachel’s Vineyard welcomes, women, men, couples,
grandparents and abortion providers. Our retreats are held in both Catholic and
Interdenominational settings. It is a ministry of Priests for Life

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Publisher: Rachel's Vineyard Ministries

Editors: Catherine McHugh, Theresa Burke

Comments and questions: tburke@nti4.com

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The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy
you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was
burned in the potter's oven?

The elections of November 2, 2004 are pivotal for those of us
working in post abortion healing. It is imperative that on that day we elect
more public officials who understand the damage that abortion causes to the
individual, to relationships and family life. We must elect those who are
willing to do something to restore full protection to the lives of unborn
children. The ability of Congress and the states, to make progress in this area
is at stake in this election. People on both sides of the abortion controversy
acknowledge that the makeup of the Supreme Court, and the fate of Roe vs. Wade,
are key consequences of how we will vote this year. Those of us involved in post
abortion healing and defending the unborn have carried out our work steadily
whether the political climate was favorable or unfavorable, and that will always
be the case. However, we should not fall into the error of putting our
responsibilities on somebody else's shoulders, or of expecting government to do
our work. Politics is not our salvation, God is. Yet while we don't want
government to do our work, we demand that government do its own work, and that
means, first of all, passing laws that protect the lives of all citizens,
including the unborn and support legislation and initiatives to educate the
public about post abortion trauma and support healing resources. Moreover, while
government does its work, we must insure that it does not stand in the way of
ours. And while God, rather than politics, is our salvation, it is also true
that our response to Him includes carrying out our political responsibilities.

Elections are not contests between two or more candidates;
they are contests between two or more teams. Because of the supreme urgency of
this upcoming election, and because of how close so many races will be all of us
involved in post abortion healing have a serious moral obligation to work, in
each race, for the victory of the candidate who will do more than his or her
opponent to increase protection for unborn children and support legislation that
offers assistance to those wounded by their involvement in an abortion.

We strongly encourage you to make sure that persons in your
family, Church, ministry and community are registered to vote and informed on
the candidate's positions on the right to life and post abortion issues and to
establish mechanisms to facilitate maximum turnout at the voting booths.

As has been said before, all our actions must be built upon a
foundation of prayer. Starting on August 31, 2004, Priests for Life and Gospel
of Life Ministries, and Rachel’s Vineyard, are calling upon all Christians to
offer a special novena of nine weeks of intense prayer for our nation as we
prepare to elect our national and local leaders:

Faith is not a refuge from reality. It is a demand that we
face reality, with all its difficulties, opportunities, and implications. The
true subject matter of religion is not our own little souls, but the Eternal God
and His whole mysterious purpose, and our solemn responsibility to Him.

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

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SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

By Fr. Neal Joseph Wilkinson, SJ.

There's a story of Jesus' life that didn't quite make it into
the Bible. We know the story of the time. He came upon the crowd about to stone
the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. He said, "Let the one without
sin cast the first stone." Everyone put down their rocks, and just then, He sees
one rock go whizzing by. He immediately calls out, "Mama, stop it!"

Of course, such a story is ridiculous. Mary, the sinless
Mother of Jesus understood that she was sinless only by the grace of God. Just
as we are redeemed and saved from our sin only by the grace of God, Mary was
preserved from sin only by grace. Her first thought on encountering any sin or
any sinner would be the familiar refrain, "there but for the grace of God go I!"

The movie, the Passion of the Christ portrays a deep
friendship between Mary and the woman who had been caught in the act of
adultery. We see that Mary has no fear of having contact with a sinner. Mary and
the woman are shown loving and supporting each other as sisters in the moment of
tragedy. Of course, in our tradition we call Mary our Mother, but in the order
of grace, she is a beloved daughter of God and so truly our sister-completely
dependent on God's grace.

Discussing this woman who sinned and repented, I think of my
friends, my heroes, who have had abortions and in their repentance have come to
know the Lord Jesus Christ just as truly as the woman of 2000 years ago. And
like that woman, they know they have a friend and a sister in Mary. In
particular there is appeal in the figures of Mary as pregnant, Our Lady of
Guadalupe, and the Pietá, Mary as the mother of a child who has died.

The Gospels give us more insight into the figure of Mary. In
the face of the frightening news that she was to be the mother of a child
without a human father, she reaches out in generosity to her middle-aged cousin
Elizabeth who was carrying her first child. This is kindness, love and
generosity in the face of fears.

When Elizabeth greets her, we see still another aspect of
Mary. She is more than a kind and good and loving woman; she is a prophet! When
we hear her say that her whole being proclaims the greatness of the Lord, she
goes on to say that God "Has shown the strength of His arm, and He has scattered
the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has
lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he
has sent away empty."

There is power in this woman's words! Whenever the Church
listens to Mary the prophet, she dedicates herself to the care of the poor and
is attentive to their experience. God never approves when some starve and others
have more than they need. The poor are those who are insignificant; they are the
nameless and are not considered relevant.

My friends, the post-abortive women who have met Jesus, would
all qualify as "poor" in this sense. Very, very few of them are able to tell
their stories publicly. Because I have heard so many, let me share with you
something of what I have heard.

Some Christians refer to them as having been "just plain
selfish," or worse. Every woman's story is so complex that none of us has any
right to dismiss it with a simple word like "selfish."

Other Christians loudly and forcefully proclaim, "There are
other issues besides abortion." It is true that God is on the side of all of the
poor of this world: the people of Darfur, women and children working for slave
wages and in inhumane conditions all over the world. But there are desperately
poor women in our midst who suffer in silence. The proclamation: "there are
other issues" can sound insensitive and it can hurt these women. Some may hear
it, as something like, "Other than that, how was the trip to Dallas, Mrs.
Kennedy?" Instead of seeking to justify public figures who support abortion
rights, how about a simple acknowledgment that such individuals are wrong about
abortion, period.

Outside of the Church, women are often told, "You did the
right thing; you had no other choice." But the grief and remorse they carry in
their hearts tell them otherwise. We are a "happy" culture. We don't want to
discuss painful and difficult issues. Many women settle for living with their
pain because they are never invited to face the grief abortion brought to their
hearts.

Some say, "No one forced them to have abortions." That is so
untrue! Just listen to a few stories of manipulative, even coercive. Boyfriends
not ready to be fathers or stories of parents who decided to terminate their
daughters' motherhood. And these women trusted the US government, which warns
about all manner of food and drugs and harmful activities, but allows abortion
without comment. In their moment of crisis, women figure, "it is legal, so it
must be safe; it won't hurt me."

If we hear of the difficult and seemingly impossible
situations of women, we can understand why abortions happen. I believe that most
everyone who supports abortion follows situation ethics. The problem, of course,
with situation ethics is that it reflects only partial truth. We hear what
happens a year, or five or ten, or twenty or sixty years later. A mother loses a
child, or needs help and she thinks of the child she aborted and she cannot
change the choice from so long ago.

While thousands of women and men have found healing from
their abortions, maybe only a couple of hundred are speaking out about how wrong
their abortions were, how they hurt them. These few women are considered a great
threat by the pro-abortion forces. They are dismissed as "an antiabortion
tactic."

In our Rachel’s Vineyard retreat for those who suffer after
abortion, there is a monstrance shaped like Mary with the Blessed Sacrament, the
Body of Christ, in her heart. It has rich meaning for them to remember that a
woman like them carried the real Body of Christ in her body.

When women give birth I've heard many describe it as a
miraculous process, as somehow touching the divine. They feel closer to God. It
should be no surprise then, that when women deny the life within they feel
separated from God. And the separation goes on for years.

In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament they finally feel
welcomed home. They have a special love for the Eucharist because they felt
separated from it for so many years.

Today we celebrate God's victory in Mary. And it is she, the
loving and generous woman who went to be with her cousin Elizabeth, who invites
us to this table.

But Mary the prophet also stands with poor post-abortive
women and men. She asks that any who were in positions of power and failed to
act to stop abortion stay back and contemplate their position, just as women who
had abortions often had to spend years in contemplation of their choice. How
much sense does it make to invite someone forward for Communion who has some
responsibility for keeping others away?

We must come back to Mary. We do her injustice if we fail to
appreciate the fullness of her person. She is a loving prophet. When we proclaim
the truth as Mary did, we always do so in a firm but loving manner. Mary never
threw stones-and neither should we.

Fr. Neal Wilkinson, SJ has been active with Rachel's Vineyard
since 1999 and has served on retreat teams in Massachusetts, South Dakota, and
Minnesota. He is currently serving as associate pastor at SS Peter and Paul
Church in Mankato, MN. He is on the Rachel's Vineyard e-mail buddy list, and can
be reached at fr.neal@juno.com

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POST ABORTION DEPRESSION RESEARCH AND
CARE ACT

Each year, 1.18 million women have abortions. Yet no
long-term study has ever been done in order to assess the emotional impact of
abortion on women. Those of us involved in post abortion ministries like
Rachel’s Vineyard have witnessed first-hand the devastating experiences of loss,
guilt, suicidal impulses, anxiety and depression in connection with their
previous abortion. H.R. 4543 provides $15 million to the National Institutes of
Health to research the emotional impact of abortion on women.

Representative Joe Pitts introduced the new bill HR 4543
which would provide funding of the development of treatment programs for women
who suffer post abortion depression. It currently has 26 co-sponsors and is
referred to as H.R. 4543—The Post-Abortion Depression Research and Care Act. The
bill would expand activities of the National Institutes of Mental Health, as
well as other Institutes, for activities related to post-abortion depression and
post-abortion psychosis. The bill would authorize appropriation of $3,000,000
for each of the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 for post-abortion conditions
programming. It would also require the Secretary of HHS to provide grants to
improve health care delivery services and access to care. The bill was referred
to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Slowly, all through the universe, that temple of God is being
built. Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed obedience, catches the
fire of God's likeness, it is set into the growing walls, a living stone. When,
in your hard fight, in your tiresome drudgery, or in your terrible temptation,
you catch the purpose of your being and give yourself to God, and so give Him
the chance to give Himself to you, your life -- a living stone -- is taken up
and set into that growing wall. Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in
whatever commonplace and homely ways, there God is hewing out the pillars for
His temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some vision of the temple of which it
is to be a part forever, what patience must fill it as it feels the blows of the
hammer, and knows that success for it is simply to let itself be wrought into
what shape the Master wills.

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Law of Growth [1902]

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SHARING OUR JOYS & TEARS

Please pray for Donna Augustine’s family and the departed
soul of her father Daniel Caprario. Donna’s dad lost a long battle with cancer
on August 15. Donna has been active with Rachel’s Vineyard for many years in
Philadelphia. She currently serves as one of the lead coordinators in
Jacksonville, Florida. Let us pray together for her entire family during this
time of separation and grief.

Please pray for a young woman "Caroline" who recently took
her life because of unbearable heartbreak caused by a coerced abortion.

We thank God for all the many laborers he has sent into
Rachel’s Vineyard, as leaders, teachers, and ministers of the Lord’s love and
mercy. We extend a warm welcome to all the new retreat teams, especially the
newest Rachel’s Vineyard sites in Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Madrid, Spain! We
welcome several new sites in development this month: Marsha Tucker in Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina, and the first Rachel’s Vineyard retreats are being
planned for Glasgow, Scotland by Linda Porter from British Victims of Abortion
and in Canberra, Australia by Camille Corson

Please pray for Pam’s husband, Robert Montelongo. Robert
suffered a massive heart attack and is recovering from a very serious quadruple
bypass surgery. Pam Montelongo is a member of the Rachel’s Vineyard team in Los
Angeles and has been working to help establish a new RV site in San Bernardino,
California. Please keep Robert in your prayers for increasing strength and a
full recovery.

Mary Alice Schonberger is the woman behind the Rachel’s
Vineyard 1 877 HOPE 4 ME toll free national hotline. Please pray for Mary
Alice’s mother, who was displaced after Hurricane Charlie ripped through her
neighborhood in Florida. We pray for all those who are victimized by natural
disasters, especially those who suffer the death of a loved one in storms and
sudden accidents.

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For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

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UPDATES FROM SILENT NO MORE

Silent No More has started posting events for this fall on
their website and encourage you to visit
www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org
to see what’s happening in your area.

Chris Jackman and Stacy Lynn Massey are putting together a
directory and network of all the abortion recovery programs available
nationwide: ARIN, the Abortion Recovery International Network and directory:
Their new website for the network is up, visit
www.abortionrecoverynetwork.org Remember, if you run an abortion recovery
program they want you to get in contact with them and get your Program
registered. Click here to link to their website page that has info about the
directory:

Also, there is an exciting new way for you to share the
truth about abortion with others using the medium of television. The story of
Tilly, a novelette written many years ago by Frank Peretti has been produced
into a docu-drama that you can purchase on VHS or DVD. The program can be shown
on TV or in private settings and highlights one woman’s journey through denial
and healing. Visit www.LoveLifeAmerica.org Or call 800-92-TILLY for details on
how to order.

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Never again are we to look at the stars, as we did when
we were children, and wonder how far it is to God. A being outside our world
would be a spectator, looking on but taking no part in this life, where we try
to be brave despite all the bafflement. A god who created, and withdrew, could
be mighty, but he could not be love. Who could love a God remote, when suffering
is our lot? Our God is closer than our problems, for they are out there, to be
faced; He is here, beside us, Emmanuel. Joseph E. McCabe (1912- ), Handel's
Messiah [1978]

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HEATHER ROSE

My daughter's name is Heather Rose

And she is safe and happy

Up in Heaven with our Savior Jesus

And she and Jesus have done

What I never thought they could or should

They have forgiven me

For the abortion that destroyed

Heather Rose before she got to breathe

I have come to see since meeting her

That as horrible as the abortion was

The greatest dishonor to my daughter

Was denying that she was once a part of me.

She was once, before our meeting

In heaven looking down on me

Waiting for the day I could

Let go of my guilt and shame

And give her, her name.

Now she is a part of me as she once was

In my heart I will always carry her

Along with her love and her forgiveness

That was only hers to give

I long for the day I go to heaven

And hold my sweet Heather Rose

I will walk in the hills of heaven

Hand in hand with my Heather Rose.

Vlh 6/14/04

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For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the
glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Sept 29, 2004 Seminar on Post-Abortion Trauma and
Healing with Fr. Shane Tharp
Catholic Charities Maine is sponsoring an educational training day for
clergy and parish ministers in Augusta on September 29, 2004. This workshop is
offered to help enrich parish ministry and outreach to the post-abortive and
their families. For more information take a look at our brochure "Come Back To
Me" at www.ccmaine.org (link at bottom of first page)

God is none other than the Savior of our wretchedness.
So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities... Those who have known
God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified him, but have
glorified themselves.

For the first two or three years after my
conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing
there is a tree full of fruits -— you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits
from the owner of the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two
fruits. But if you can make the tree your own property, then all the fruits will
be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in
Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is
everything to you; otherwise you will have to go and ask like a beggar for
certain things. When they are used up, you will have to ask again. So ask not
for gifts but for the Giver of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life -—
then life and the things needed for life will be added unto you.

Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

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